The reason why the industry doesn't like fibre optics is because there's no way to monetarise it.
Once upon a time, people invented things. But those who didn't have the patience to keep trying things in the hope of finding something that worked got jealous, and took over the system. Modern business practice is to find something that people already do for free or low cost, and then work out how to charge them money -- or more money -- for it. Usually by waving a bogus patent claim in people's faces. This works in the USA, thanks in no small part to the American system of allowing lawyers to demand payment whilst a case is still ongoing. (Another method which sometimes works well is by insisting that a popular commodity be paid for in US dollars, in order to skim a small amount off every transaction, and invading any country that threatens to start selling it by the Euro instead.)
Now, those pesky laws of nature say you can couple a signal into a piece of fibre-optic without any expensive proprietary connectors: all you have to do is cut the end cleanly with a single chop from a very sharp kitchen knife, and hold it in place with Rizla papers and Blu-tack. This actually works surprisingly well over short distances and for equipment which is generally considered furniture and so not moved about much. Send SCSI commands serially over fibre-optics, and you've suddenly got an open standard that nobody can make money from.
And therein lies the problem; because, without government intervention, such an open standard is never going to be popular with the big established players. They want their own proprietary standards (so you can't just use a brand X recorder with a brand Y TV), or at least a common proprietary standard that saves them from having to compete on merit by allowing them to close ranks and keep young upstarts out of the game.
All of which is ignoring the fact that we have *already* had for years a royalty-free standard connector that supports RGB+Csync or Composite Video (with graceful degradation if only one device is RGB-capable), stereo audio (plenty good enough if you're using TV speakers; if you want multi-channel, you really should be using a dedicated amplifier with its own fibre-optic input) and data communication. RGB is what CRTs and LCDs use natively, and so provides better picture quality than either SVHS or YPrPb. It ought to be possible just to extend the SCART standard to deal with higher sync rates, using the data channel to indicate what the display supports and falling back to 15kHz in the worst case.
SCART (with higher scan rates) and VGA should also be reasonably compatible: the only problems are in the different signal levels, impedances and sync formats (Csync vs. separate Hsync and Vsync), but expect a single-chip solution to emerge as soon as there is a need for it. Yes, SCART is analogue; but since the signal from the SCART cocket goes, as near as d**n it is to swearing, straight to the CRT and speakers, then that oughtn't to be a problem.
If we really do need digital signals (for, say, recording from a receiver without an integrated HDD -- as if anyone will make them that way in future -- or transferring from a fixed device to a mobile one in a way consistent with the fair dealing provisions of copyright law), fibre-optic is the logical way to go.
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Why they really don't like fibre
The reason why the industry doesn't like fibre optics is because there's no way to monetarise it.
Once upon a time, people invented things. But those who didn't have the patience to keep trying things in the hope of finding something that worked got jealous, and took over the system. Modern business practice is to find something that people already do for free or low cost, and then work out how to charge them money -- or more money -- for it. Usually by waving a bogus patent claim in people's faces. This works in the USA, thanks in no small part to the American system of allowing lawyers to demand payment whilst a case is still ongoing. (Another method which sometimes works well is by insisting that a popular commodity be paid for in US dollars, in order to skim a small amount off every transaction, and invading any country that threatens to start selling it by the Euro instead.)
Now, those pesky laws of nature say you can couple a signal into a piece of fibre-optic without any expensive proprietary connectors: all you have to do is cut the end cleanly with a single chop from a very sharp kitchen knife, and hold it in place with Rizla papers and Blu-tack. This actually works surprisingly well over short distances and for equipment which is generally considered furniture and so not moved about much. Send SCSI commands serially over fibre-optics, and you've suddenly got an open standard that nobody can make money from.
And therein lies the problem; because, without government intervention, such an open standard is never going to be popular with the big established players. They want their own proprietary standards (so you can't just use a brand X recorder with a brand Y TV), or at least a common proprietary standard that saves them from having to compete on merit by allowing them to close ranks and keep young upstarts out of the game.
All of which is ignoring the fact that we have *already* had for years a royalty-free standard connector that supports RGB+Csync or Composite Video (with graceful degradation if only one device is RGB-capable), stereo audio (plenty good enough if you're using TV speakers; if you want multi-channel, you really should be using a dedicated amplifier with its own fibre-optic input) and data communication. RGB is what CRTs and LCDs use natively, and so provides better picture quality than either SVHS or YPrPb. It ought to be possible just to extend the SCART standard to deal with higher sync rates, using the data channel to indicate what the display supports and falling back to 15kHz in the worst case.
SCART (with higher scan rates) and VGA should also be reasonably compatible: the only problems are in the different signal levels, impedances and sync formats (Csync vs. separate Hsync and Vsync), but expect a single-chip solution to emerge as soon as there is a need for it. Yes, SCART is analogue; but since the signal from the SCART cocket goes, as near as d**n it is to swearing, straight to the CRT and speakers, then that oughtn't to be a problem.
If we really do need digital signals (for, say, recording from a receiver without an integrated HDD -- as if anyone will make them that way in future -- or transferring from a fixed device to a mobile one in a way consistent with the fair dealing provisions of copyright law), fibre-optic is the logical way to go.